Solonauts

This is a solitaire game in which the challenge is to get eight Chrononauts home on a single pass through the deck. It's a great way to learn the ins and outs the TimeLine when you don't have any opponents on hand for a full game.

Number of Players: one.

Setup

Remove and set aside all the Artifacts, Gadgets, Actions, Timewarps, and Missions. Shuffle the Patches and Inverters together, and set up the TimeLine as usual.

Then deal out eight random ID cards, and arrange them face-up underneath the TimeLine. Finally, deal out five cards from the reduced play deck, and line them up under the characters.

Game Play

Choose one of your five cards and play it just as you would in the full game, except without drawing an extra card after playing a Patch.

Feel free to discard any Patches you know you aren't going to need. Draw back to five cards and keep playing until one of the characters can get home.

Move that character up to the space above the TimeLine, and carry on. Remember, you only get one pass through the deck, so plan carefully!

End of the Game

To win, you must get all eight of your characters home before you run out of cards.

To Adjust the Challenge

To make the game even more challenging, try increasing the number of IDs you start with. (Or, to make it easier, play it with just 6 or 7 characters).

Artifaxx

This is a fast and easy time travel game that uses a subset of the cards from the Chrononauts deck. It's a faster, lighter-weight version of the game that leaves out all the complexities that crop up when people use time travel to change history.

Artifaxx is also good if you've got younger players, who may have trouble grasping all the historical events on the TimeLine.

Finally, Artifaxx is a great variation for the airplane or the lunch counter, where space for the entire TimeLine isn't available.

Number of Players: 2-4.

Setup

Sort out all the Artifacts, Actions, Timewarps, and Missions. The rest of the deck is not used for this game (but it can be used by someone else to play Solonauts).

Also set aside the Gadgets, the "Beatles Reunion CD" and "German Cake" Artifacts, and the Action called 'Your Parents Never Met".

Shuffle the Artifacts, Actions, and Timewarps together, and deal three cards to each player, along with one random Mission card.

Game Play

Players take turns drawing one and playing one until someone achieves their secret Mission. To play an Artifact, just set it out on the table in front of you, face-up.

To play an Action or a Timewarp card, place it on the discard pile and do whatever it says.

End of the Game

You win if you have the three Artifacts listed on your Mission on the table in front when your turn ends.

Continue Reading